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BW 9 vs Logos 5

I am thinking of upgrading my Bible software and would welcome advice.

My interests are the NT (NA 27) and I am interested in Paul, especially the Authentic and the Pastoral Letters. I am also interested in the Church Fathers, especially the Apostolic Fathers, and am currently studying the Didache.

As well as academic interests I am also interested in the Bible for spiritual/religious reasons. I like to read a chapter daily and pick out one verse that inspires me and look up the use of words and grammar.

In fact I usually use Logos and have purchased many extra resources, but now Logos 8 is being discontinued.

I have several problems about using BW to the full, but these are for another time.

I am thinking of upgrading my Bible software and would welcome advice.My interests are the NT (NA 27) and I am interested in Paul, especially the Authentic and the Pastoral Letters. I am also interested in the Church Fathers, especially the Apostolic Fathers, and am currently studying the Didache.... I like to read a chapter daily and pick out one verse that inspires me and look up the use of words and grammar.

Hello Mr. Fitzpatrick, if your interest are in Original language study and NT text criticism you might want to consider upgrading to BibleWorks 9. (FYI I have and use BibleWorks9, Logos5, and Accordance(on the Emulator), too. And I plan on updating all them as they mature and grow) Here in short are some reason I think you might want to consider BibleWorks9:

(1) CNTTS NT Critical ApparatusQuickly compare variant readings

For the first time, the New Testament Critical Apparatus from the Center for New Testament Textual Studies is available for PCs. This exhaustive apparatus covers the entire New Testament. The BibleWorks version has been enhanced to show a matrix of Aland categories and time period for the mss for each reading. Users will especially appreciate having the apparatus track and update as the mouse moves over the text in the BibleWorks main window. In addition, the start of each verse entry summarizes the significant, insignificant, and singular variants. When examining a variant, the text of the verse is shown with the variant text highlighted. No unlock required!

This massive project has been years in the making. BibleWorks 9 includes the first installment of this ongoing work. The BibleWorks Manuscript Project's initial release covers the following:

Sinaiticus

Vaticanus

Alexandrinus

Bezae

Washingtonianus

Boernerianus

GA1141

For these manuscripts, the BibleWorks Manuscript Project includes the following:

New full NT transcriptions

Complete NT digital image sets (over 7.5 GB!!)

Verse location tagging in images

Extensive transcription notes

MSS comparison tool

Morphological tagging (not complete for all manuscripts but updates will be provided free of charge to BibleWorks 9 users as they become available)

Manuscripts are fully searchable and integrated with the full array of BibleWorks analysis tools. As you change verses in BibleWorks, the MS image display tracks with the current verse. Compare, inspect, and analyze the text and images of key original manuscripts. Tweak and enhance the manuscript images using the sophisticated image processing panel now included in BibleWorks.

3. A multitude of Greek texts all included in the base-package and all highly proof read and continuously checked for accuracy.

Aletti/Gieniusz/Bushell Morphologically Analyzed Greek New Testament

Aletti/Gieniusz/Bushell/CATSS Morphologically Analyzed Septuagint

Alford Greek New Testament (1849, as revised in 1871) †

Apostolic Fathers English translation

Apostolic Fathers (Greek with Morphological tags by Gieniusz/Bushell)

Apostolic Fathers Latin

BibleWorks Manuscript Project: transcriptions, notes, and complete NT digital image sets (7.5 GB!) of Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrinus, Bezae, Washingtonianus, Boernerianus and GA1141. Images are tagged with verse locations. Morphological tagging is not complete for all manuscripts but updates will be provided free of charge to BibleWorks 9 users as they become available.

I just posted this in another thread, but it seems to be apropos here (especially since the link includes a review of Logos 5). Here I have made a comparative review of Logos, Accordance, and BibleWorks.

For what you're looking for, if PC is your platform (and cost an issue), BibleWorks sounds like the way to go.

Other considerations

You might want to read what I wrote in June 2011 when comparing BW8 to BW9 HERE. If you are interested in early church texts, BW is certainly your cheapest option.
I also made some observations about choosing between Accordance, BibleWorks, and Logos HERE.

Many thanks to all who replied to me. I sent essentially the same message to both Logos and BW fora, and (surprise, surprise) in the BW forum an upgrade to BW was suggested mainly, and in the Logos one a Logos update was preferred.

I think I will upgrade BW now, and wait a while before upgrading Logos. I hope to get the free software to run Logos 5 , which is expected to be released soon.

I mostly use Logos and buy the resources I want beyond my Original languages package, so there are no new resources I really need now.

Many thanks to all who replied to me. I sent essentially the same message to both Logos and BW fora, and (surprise, surprise) in the BW forum an upgrade to BW was suggested mainly, and in the Logos one a Logos update was preferred.

I'm glad the forums work the way they are supposed to

I don't really like engaging in the partisanship of whose Bible software is better. As a consumer, I think competition is to our best advantage, but it seems like there are fewer players than there used to be.

One thing that seems to be an interesting trend to me is that people are spending a ton of money on software, which is assumed to be the better investment over books. I'm partial to the position BibleWorks has taken on this matter, yet I'm still amazed (or alarmed?) to see how much people on the Logos forums say they have spent on that program. I'd like to think that I'm a scholar, but I can't even find it in me to justify spending more than a thousand dollars on this stuff. Though I know for some it's their "hobby" and people do find ways to spend a lot of time and money on their hobbies.

BibleWorks seems to have the only position among the other software companies that profit is not their number one motivation. They are a small company. To some, that's a huge disadvantage. They do weird things like close their office on Sundays. To some that's either an inconvenience or a really stupid business decision. But that's just the thing, they tend not to make a lot of "business decisions." They really do see their work as serving those who want to study God's Word and they've made a business not of making a business, but of serving that audience. When I keep that in mind, I don't always get bothered by not having all of the latest books and versions right this second because I'm reminded that all things being equal this is a company I feel good about supporting. It may be an odd criterion, but I've been around long enough to see that the people here have the kind of business values that I'd want to have myself.

Just to add to Michael's observations...
I just got back from the Society of Biblical Literature meeting in Chicago. Another really weird thing that BW does is not have their booth open on Sunday like every other exhibitor. The meeting is really only Sat-Sun-Mon, and I'm guessing it's pretty expensive to buy exhibition space, but good for the BW folks for keeping their commitments!